These guidelines are to help you prepare for the Zero Waste Office Food Waste Challenge. The challenge begins on a Monday, with preparation happening on Sunday and Wednesday, though you are welcome to adapt this set up to meet your schedule.

Sunday Perpetration

By making the vast majority of your prep on Sunday, you minimise the amount of time you actually need to use in the week. This allows you to easily integrate these changes into your everyday life. The prep will take a few hours, but most of it is oven roasting or things that can be done on the hob and checked on

If you’re on board to take part in the weeklong Zero Food Waste Challenge, you’re going to need to get a few things ready. Being prepared is a huge chunk of what Zero Waste Living is all about. And in this case, I have done all the thinking for you, you just need to follow the steps. You’re welcome.

Step 1: Decide your start date

The recipes and preparation has been designed so that you begin your preparation on the Sunday, ready for the work week. If you want to start on a different day (maybe you don’t work Monday, you lucky thing!) just adjust the days to include a preparation day before hand and time to have sourced your ingredients.

If you’ve been following the Zero Food Waste Office Challenge, this lunch is very to assemble, you practically have everything ready made for you, you just need to get things out from the fridge and put them in a air tight box, simples.

If you haven’t already made the hummus or wraps, you can follow both recipes and come back to this meal. I really like this meal as a lunch when I am travelling, as it’s filling and easy to shove in your gob when you’re on a train.

Cooking with dried beans used to seem daunting to me, before I really understood how to get the best out of them.

My preferred method of cooking them, is to batch soak and cook them, then freeze any I don’t use. Alternatively, any that don’t get used can be made into this awesome snack! If you want any more guidance, this video gives a bit more background info.

Nuts are pretty great as they come, but every so often I love to toast them in herbs or spices to give them a little extra something.

Packets of crisps are a no go since I’ve given up things in single use packaging. I like to think of this snack as a similar sort of vibe to crisps especially as you can change the herbs and spices to suit your taste.

I toast mine on the hob, as I don’t do many servings at once, and it also means I can keep an eye on them. If you want to toast loads at once, it may well be with toasting in the oven. Toast nuts in the oven at about 170°c and check on them every 5 minuets to avoid charcoal nuts.